Gayndah aged care home given all-clear after audit

A GAYNDAH aged care facility has come forward to say their clients are safe under their care, after being deemed a "serious risk” in an August audit.

AGED CARE: A Gayndah aged care facility has come forward to say their clients are safe under their care, after being deemed a "serious risk” in an August audit. Picture: Bev Lacey

A GAYNDAH aged care facility has reassured families their loved ones are safe at the centre, after it was deemed a "serious risk” in an August audit.

Gunther Village in the Central and Upper Burnett District Home for the Aged Hostel in Gayndah was audited in August and found to have breached several quality standards.

It was re-audited in January, where it was given the all clear.

Last week, the Courier-Mail reported the facility was one of 16 across the state to be audited in 2018-19 by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), where residents were found to be at "serious risk”.

But in August, the ACQSC report found breaches of several quality standards including clinical care, skin care and regulatory compliance.

"On 8 August 2018 a delegate of the CEO of the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency made a decision that failure by The Central and Upper Burnett District Home for the Aged to meet three expected outcomes in the Accreditation standards in relation to (the Aged Hostel) has placed the safety, health or well-being of care recipients of the service at serious risk,” a statement read.

The August report found "clinical care is not always undertaken in a timely manner and/or provided by staff as directed and/or prescribed”.

"Interventions are not in place to ensure that care recipients' skin integrity is maintained. Care recipients are smoking in the home.”

Gunther Village Facility Manager Vicki Boyd said the staff at the centre had since worked exceptionally hard to mitigate those risks raised in the report.

And in a follow-up audit in January The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission found the services provided at Central and Upper Burnett District Home for the Aged Hostel complied with all accreditation standards.

"Serious risk is not an ongoing state; it is a statutory decision based on evidence at a point in time,” the January audit report stated.

Speaking to the NewsMail,Ms Boyd said her staff had worked to a timeline of improvement before they were re-audited in January.

"We made sure no residents were at risk, and worked hard to make sure procedures were looked at and rectified where any gaps were,” Ms Boyd said.

She said all 49 of the residents were safe in the centre and said the result of the August audit was a "glitch” after 36 years in operation.

"It was just a point in time,” she said.

"All other audits we have passed and as we speak we are being re-accredited.

"This home has worked very hard to mitigate risks and there are no residents at risk here ... All residents and families are very happy with the care given ... I'm proud of hard work my staff put in and our effort here.”